Reader Case Study: Special Education Teacher In Debt

Anna is a 35-year-old special eduction teacher of middle school students with severe and profound disabilities. She lives in rural Illinois and is currently working on completing her master’s degree in education. In the future, she’d like to move into a different teaching position that’s hopefully more lucrative since she doesn’t make enough at her current job. To make ends meet each month, she works a part-time retail job and receives financial assistance from her parents. Anna envisions a debt-free future and would like our help charting a path to get there.

What’s a Reader Case Study?

Case Studies address financial and life dilemmas that readers of Frugalwoods send in requesting advice. Then, we (that’d be me and YOU, dear reader) read through their situation and provide advice, encouragement, insight and feedback in the comments section.

For an example, check out the last case study. Case Studies are updated by participants (at the end of the post) several months after the Case is featured. Visit this page for links to all updated Case Studies.

Can I Be A Reader Case Study?

There are four options for folks interested in receiving a holistic Frugalwoods financial consultation:

1. Apply to be an on-the-blog Case Study subject here.
2. Hire me for a private financial consultation here.
3. Schedule an hourlong call with me here.
   

→Not sure which option is right for you? Schedule a free 15-minute chat with me to learn more. Refer a friend to me here.

Please note that space is limited for all of the above and most especially for on-the-blog Case Studies. I do my best to accommodate everyone who applies, but there are a limited number of slots available each month.

The Goal Of Reader Case Studies

Reader Case Studies highlight a diverse range of financial situations, ages, ethnicities, locations, goals, careers, incomes, family compositions and more!

The Case Study series began in 2016 and, to date, there’ve been 100 Case Studies. I’ve featured folks with annual incomes ranging from $17k to $200k+ and net worths ranging from -$300k to $2.9M+.

I’ve featured single, married, partnered, divorced, child-filled and child-free households. I’ve featured gay, straight, queer, bisexual and polyamorous people. I’ve featured women, non-binary folks and men. I’ve featured transgender and cisgender people. I’ve had cat people and dog people. I’ve featured folks from the US, Australia, Canada, England, South Africa, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany and France. I’ve featured people with PhDs and people with high school diplomas. I’ve featured people in their early 20’s and people in their late 60’s. I’ve featured folks who live on farms and folks who live in New York City.

Reader Case Study Guidelines

I probably don’t need to say the following because you all are the kindest, most polite commenters on the internet, but please note that Frugalwoods is a judgement-free zone where we endeavor to help one another, not condemn.

There’s no room for rudeness here. The goal is to create a supportive environment where we all acknowledge we’re human, we’re flawed, but we choose to be here together, workshopping our money and our lives with positive, proactive suggestions and ideas.

And a disclaimer that I am not a trained financial professional and I encourage people not to make serious financial decisions based solely on what one person on the internet advises. 

I encourage everyone to do their own research to determine the best course of action for their finances. I am not a financial advisor and I am not your financial advisor.

With that I’ll let Anna, today’s Case Study subject, take it from here!

Anna’s Story

Hi Frugalwoods community! My name is Anna, I’m 35 and I live in rural Illinois.  I am a special education teacher for middle school students with severe/profound disabilities. I am happily single (for now) and I have a strong relationship with my immediate family.  My hobbies–or rather, vocations–include theatre, singing, dancing, running, hanging out with family and friends and crafts. I also work a part-time job in retail to help make ends meet.

What feels most pressing right now? What brings you to submit a Case Study?

I am completing my master’s degree in education, which is tied into my teaching licensure program. I currently have debt that I would like to have repaid in about ten years. Ideally, I’d like to repay my credit card debt even sooner. I would like to have an emergency fund, but never seem to be able to find the money to put into it. Right now, I feel underpaid for the work that I do. I feel that with no children or pets of my own, and with me looking for a higher-paying teaching job for next year, now’s the time to take charge of my finances.  I’ve felt overwhelmed by the best way to approach them.  I’d like to find a more cost-effective way to manage everything.

What’s the best part of your current lifestyle/routine?

I love the flexibility of being single! I love that I am able to go on short day trips on the weekends and not have to worry about baby-sitting or pet-sitting. I like not having to worry about house repairs (that’s the beauty of renting–my landlord takes care of all that!). As a teacher, I enjoy my summers off as they enable me to pursue other things. In the future, I would like to travel for extended periods of time, most likely during the summer months.

What’s the worst part of your current lifestyle/routine?

My current workplace. Over the past year, things have become toxic with changes in the school administration and an increased workload without compensation. This is taking a toll on my mental health. I am so exhausted at the end of the day (between working full-time and going to school part-time) that I do not have energy for much else, including a social life. I’m hoping that a different work environment and a different student population (such as in resource special education) will be a better fit for me. When I’m finished with graduate school in August, I’m hoping I’ll have more of a social life plus more money to pay off my debt.

Where Anna Wants to be in Ten Years:

• Finances: debt free.
• Lifestyle: similar flexibility to that of being single; however, a special someone would be nice.
• Career: well-established in the education field.

Anna’s Finances

Income

Debts

Assets

Vehicles

Expenses

Anna’s Questions for you:

1. What are the most cost-effective ways for me to manage my finances?
2. What non-teaching areas in education can former teachers enter into?

Liz Frugalwoods’ Recommendations

I commend Anna for taking the hard, but important, step of facing her financial reality. She offered such a clear-eyed view in her comment, “I feel that with no children or pets of my own, and with me looking for a higher-paying teaching job for next year, now’s the time to take charge of my finances.” I agree. And I would add that anytime is the right time to take charge of your finances. Way to go, Anna!

Income Vs. Expenses

As I’m fond of saying, there are only two major variables in our financial lives: what comes in and what goes out. These are the two variables we can most easily adjust and in Anna’s case, I suggest she focus on both variables.

Income

Anna noted she’ll be completing her master’s degree and then will look for a better-paying job. That sounds like an excellent plan. She’s correct that she’s just not being paid enough–and especially not enough for the important, challenging work she does. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: WE SHOULD PAY TEACHERS MORE. Teachers do one of the hardest jobs under some of the toughest circumstances and they are not paid enough. Full stop. Since Anna’s already in process on finding a higher income, let’s turn our attention to variable #2.

Expenses

Anna’s budget is pretty meagre as it stands, but her income is equally meagre, which means–if she wants to make progress on her stated goals of building up an emergency fund and paying down her debts–she has to reduce her spending. We can’t magic money from anywhere else, it’s got to come from spending less each month.

Lucky for Anna, she has very low fixed expenses! 

Anytime a person wants to spend less, I encourage them to define all of their expenses as Fixed, Reduceable or Discretionary:

• Fixed expenses are things you cannot change. Examples: your mortgage and debt payments.
• Reduceable expenses are necessary for human survival, but you control how much you spend on them. Examples: groceries, gas for the car, utilities.
• Discretionary expenses are things that can be eliminated entirely. Examples: travel, haircuts, eating out.

Let’s take a look at how Anna’s expenses break down between those three categories as well as my proposed new spending amounts:

What I’ve proposed here is a very austere, bare bones budget and I’m not saying it’s going to be fun. However, at Anna’s current income level, and with the amount of debt she has, this is her only option. One outlet Anna might consider is the age-old tactic of barter and trade. For example: could she offer to staff the desk at the dance studio in exchange for free classes? Could she clean her voice teacher’s house in exchange for free lessons? Could she tutor her hair stylist’s kid in exchange for free haircuts? The possibilities are endless! Check out this post for a whole host of ideas: How Barter and Trade Enhances Frugality and Community

This Can Be Temporary

While spending this little is Anna’s only option, I want her to remember that it’s her only option for right now. The above does not need to be her forever budget. It just needs to be her right now budget.

Anna can consider adding luxuries back in once she:

1. Pays off all of her high-interest credit card debt
2. Saves up an emergency fund
3. Can easily afford her monthly student loan repayments
4. Increases her retirement contributions
5. Finds a higher-paying job
6. Is able to stop receiving financial support from her parents in the form of cash, car insurance and cell hone coverage (unless this is a longterm arrangement with her parents)

Debt Payoff Plan

Let’s turn our attention to what Anna should do with the extra money she’s going to save every month. The worst thing about debts are their interest rates. Every month that you don’t pay off high-interest debt, you slip further and further into debt. Anna needs to stop this downward spiral as soon as possible because it has the power to balloon into something worse. The interest rates on her credit cards are eye-wateringly high and I strongly encourage her to focus all of her financial energy on paying them off.

Since interest rates are the real killer with debt, I’ve sorted Anna’s debts according to their interest rate:

I suggest that Anna start at the top of the list–with the 30% interest rate debts–and work her way down, paying them off in interest-rate order.

If she’s able to follow the above bare bones budget I outlined, she’ll have an additional $858 to put towards debt repayment with each month. That’s $3,400 of income  – $2,542 in expenses.

Stop Overpaying On All Seven Debts

I also suggest Anna stop overpaying on all of her debts and instead focus her efforts on one debt at a time. This might sound counterintuitive, but the problem is that Anna’s spreading her payoff capabilities over seven different debts and consequently, not making much progress on any of them because of their astronomical interest rates. She still needs to pay the minimum required each month on every debt except for the one on the chopping block.

If she makes the minimum monthly required payment on debts #2-7, she’ll pay $621 per month instead of the $1,325 she paying right now across all seven debts.

Here’s What I want Anna to do Starting Next Month

Month 1 of Anna’s Debt Payoff Journey:

1. Pay the minimum required $621 across debts #2-7
2. Put all other money into paying off debt #1:
   1. The $858 from reducing her expenses
   2. The $704 that was going into debts #2-7
3. That gives her $1,562 to put towards debt #1, which will MORE than pay it off in ONE SINGLE MONTH!

Now we move onto debt #2 (which, reminder, is the debt with the next highest interest rate):

Month 2 of Anna’s Debt Payoff:

1. Pay the minimum required $571 across the debts #3-7
2. Put all other money into paying off debt #2:
   1. The $858 from reducing her expenses
   2. The $754 that was going into debts #1 and #3-7
   3. The $150 that went toward paying off debt #1
3. That gives her $1,762 to put towards debt #2, which (coupled with the leftover savings from month #1) should pay off debt #2 in ONE SINGLE MONTH!

Now we’re at month 3 and Anna has already paid off two of her debts!

In month 3–and going forward–I want Anna to continue on with what I’ve outlined above. As she pays off each debt, she should roll that amount into paying off the next debt. This is how she’ll have a beautiful cascade down to debt-free living. By focusing her money on one debt at a time, she will be able to pay all of them off in turn. If her income increases, she should increase her debt re-payments until they’re all gone.

Cancel The Credit Cards

Another key element of this debt payoff strategy is that Anna must avoid taking on more debt. To facilitate that, I suggest Anna cancel each credit card after she pays it off. She needs to get out of the cycle of living above her means and funding her lifestyle with credit card debt. Cancelling the cards–and not opening more–will enable her to restrict her spending to the money she actually has. I recommend she move to paying for everything with cash, check or debt card.

Student Loans

I’m less concerned about Anna’s student loans because the interest rate is so low. My question here is whether or not Anna has explored the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program? This program forgives federal student loans after a specified number of payments if your employer qualifies for the program (which most public school teachers do).

If she doesn’t qualify for PSLF, Anna should plan to pay her student loans off according to schedule. If she comes into a huge chunk of money, she can throw it at the loans. But if her income stays relatively consistent, she can plan to just pay these off on schedule. The caveat is the interest rate. If her loans have a fixed interest rate, that’s great as it means the rate will never change. If, however, her loans have a variable interest rate, it’s possible the rate will increase dramatically in the future. If that were to happen, Anna would want to put more money into paying them off as quickly as possible since, again, high interest rates are the real killer. 

Emergency Fund

We’ve focused exclusively on the debt-payoff side of things, but building an emergency fund is equally important because it serves as your buffer from going into debt. Anna has $550 saved in cash right now, which is a great start. Anything saved is better than nothing saved!

→An emergency fund should cover 3 to 6 months’ worth of your spending.

At Anna’s current monthly spend rate of $3,493, she should target an emergency fund of $10,479 to $20,958. However, since an emergency fund is calibrated on what you spend every month, the less you spend, the less you need to save up. If Anna moves to the proposed barebones budget of $2,542 per month in order to pay off her debt ASAP, she can target an emergency fund more in the range of $7,626 to $15,252.

Your emergency fund is there for you if:

• You unexpectedly lose your job
• Something horrible goes wrong with your house that needs to be fixed ASAP
• Your car breaks down and must be repaired
• You’re hit with an unexpected medical bill
• Your dog gets quilled by a porcupine and has to go to the emergency vet

An emergency fund is not for EXPECTED expenses, such as:

• Routine maintenance on a car, such as oil changes and brake pads
• Anticipated home repairs, such as boiler servicing/chimney sweeping
• Planned medical expenses

An emergency fund’s reason for existence is to prevent you from sliding into debt should the unforeseen happen. It’s your own personal safety net. It’s also why it’s so critical to track your spending every month. If you don’t know what you spend, you won’t know how much you need to save. I use and recommend the free expense tracking service from Empower (affiliate link).

How To Build An Emergency Fund

As Anna pays off each debt, I encourage her to add a bit of money into her emergency fund. While Anna needs an emergency fund (everyone needs an emergency fund!), she falls into a “less risky” category in terms of emergency fund priority. Here’s why:

• She’s a renter, so she’s not on the hook for house repairs and maintenance
• She’s single and has no kids, so there’s no one relying on her financially
• She doesn’t have any pets, so there’s no possibility of unexpected vet expenses
• She has a stable job with consistent income
• Her parents are evidently nearby and able to help her out financially

Given all of these factors, I’m less concerned with her lack of emergency fund than with her debt’s interest rates. She still needs to save up more money, but if it were me, I’d prioritize wiping out those high-interest debts.

Asset Overview

Let’s take a look at what Anna has saved and invested.

1) Cash: $550

As noted above, Anna is off to good start with her emergency fund. In addition to saving more money, I recommend she consolidate her four different accounts into two:

• a high-yield savings account (keep the majority of the money in here)
• a local checking account

Anna needs to take advantage of every possible benefit and a high-yield savings account will give her much-needed interest. For example, as of this writing, the American Express Personal Savings account earns a whopping 4.00% in interest.

2) Retirement: $8,182

Anna’s also off to a good start with her retirement investments. She needs to beef these up, but the first priority should be paying off the debt and building the emergency fund. After those two goals are knocked out, she should turn her attention to increasing her contributions to her retirement accounts. Assuming her workplace retirement account is a 403b, the IRS-permitted maximum contribution in 2023 is $22,500 per year. The IRS-permitted max contribution to her IRA (individual retirement account) in 2023 is $6,500 per year. At the very least, Anna should ensure she’s contributing enough to her employer-sponsored account to qualify for any match her employer offers.

Next up:

→Find Your Expense Ratios

Something missing from Anna’s spreadsheet are the expense ratios for these investments. Expense ratios are the percentage you pay to the brokerage for investing your money and, since they’re fees, you want them to be as low as possible.

In light of their importance to her overall long-term financial health, I encourage Anna to locate the expense ratios for both of her retirement investments. I’ll use Vanguard’s total market low-fee index fund (VTSAX) as an example of how to find an expense ratio.

You’re going to like this because it’s a three-step process:

1. Google the stock ticker (in this case I typed in “VTSAX”)
2. Go to the fund overview page
3. Look at the expense ratio

Screenshot below for reference:

And done! Woohoo! To give Anna a sense of whether or not her investments have reasonable expense ratios, the following three funds are considered to have low expense ratios:

• Fidelity’s Total Market Index Fund (FSKAX) has an expense ratio of 0.015%
• Charles Schwab’s Total Market Index Fund (SWTSX) has an expense ratio of 0.03%
• Vanguard’s Total Market Index Fund (VTSAX) has an expense ratio of 0.04%

What To Do If You Find High Expense Ratios

You can use this calculator from Bank Rate to determine what you will pay in fees over the lifetime of your investments, based on their expense ratios. If you find that your investments have high expense ratios, it will be well worth your time to investigate whether or not you can move them to lower-fee funds. This is not always possible with employer-sponsored 403bs/401ks as you’re beholden to whatever funds your employer offers. But, it’s still worth looking through all available funds to select the ones with the lowest expense ratios.

Anna’s IRA is completely under her control, which means she can select what brokerage this is kept at as well as the funds it is invested in. I highly recommend the book, The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence And a Rich, Free Life, by: JL Collins, for anyone interested in deepening their knowledge around investing. It’s well-written and easy to understand.

Pension Plan?

Most public school teachers have some sort of pension plan through the state. Anna didn’t mention having one, so she should do some digging to determine if she has access to a pension. She can start with her HR department or teacher’s union rep.

Life Insurance?

I noted that Anna has a pre-tax deduction for life insurance and I’m wondering why? Typically, life insurance is for people with dependents. In other words, life insurance is important for a family where the death of a parent would leave the remaining parent and children without sufficient income. Life insurance is not typically recommended for folks who are single and without dependents. Anna’s not paying a huge amount of money for this each month, but it’s still money that could instead go towards her priorities of paying off debt, building an emergency fund and saving for retirement.

Summary:

1. Reduce spending ASAP in order to funnel more money into debt pay-off.
2. Stop overpaying on all seven debts and instead focus on paying off the debts one at a time, in order of highest interest rate first.
3. Once the first debt is paid off, put your money towards paying off the next highest-interest rate debt and so on until all are paid off. Continue to pay the minimum required monthly payment on all debts.
4. Cancel each credit card once it is paid off.
5. Do not take on more debt.
6. Consolidate your cash accounts into a high-yield savings account.
7. Once all of these debts are paid off, Anna can start to build an emergency fund that’s 3-6 months’ worth of her expenses.
8. Once the debts are paid off and an emergency fund is saved, Anna should increase her retirement contributions.
9. Locate the expense ratios on her two retirement investments. Change brokerages/funds if the fees are high.
10. A few things to research:
    1. Does Anna have a pension plan?
    2. Can she cancel the life insurance?
    3. Does she qualify for PSLF student loan repayment?
    4. What opportunities does she have for increasing her income?

Ok Frugalwoods nation, what advice do you have for Anna? We’ll both reply to comments, so please feel free to ask questions!

Would you like your own Case Study to appear here on Frugalwoods? Apply to be an on-the-blog Case Study subject here. Hire me for a private financial consultation here. Schedule an hourlong or 30-minute call with me, refer a friend to me here, schedule a free 15-minute call to learn more or email me with questions (liz@frugalwoods.com).